TallSkinnyKiwi: Christians without Churches

This is a very interesting article about Christians outside of church. Once upon a time I didn't beleive it was possible. But then I remembered my own coming to faith -it took me over a year to get connected with a church because I was put off by what I had until then experienced. Then I also began meeting people whose faith I could not doubt but who were driven crazy by churches. Now I realise that, if I wasn't in church leadership, I could very easily be one of them ... I long to make and do church for people who don't like church ...

Germans can never escape

I looked in on this article because of the mounting expectation in some sections of the media wrt the forthcoming D-Day celebrations. I have people I call friends who are Germans and I am concerned that the Hitler years seem never to be forgotten -or at least put behind us. This article is by a German contemplating the same phenomenon; which is challenging in itself.

What is doubly interesting is towards the end when he posits a reason why this piece of history seems to refuse to lie down as history: photography and film; the images are kept always current because of 'modern' technology.

Indeed, what is it doing to our culture to have a different method of remembering our collective past than sotries and written documents? Indeed; is the self-referentiality of much fashion, popular music etc a product of the fact that collective memory is now held differntly to previously and that it is so young -relatively [what? -ninety years?] ? Is there anything to deliver us from it? Indeed - do we want to be delivered? Is our culture going to develop a short-time but very vivid memory? History is bunk except the stuff that got filmed?

aidanslegacy: UK vs. USA Battle Royale!!!

Have to say; there'sa lot of sense in this differentiation between the US and the UK on the 'emerging' church issue. I particularly warmed to the brief cultural analysis of why there is a differing approach to life the universe and everything in the UK cf the US.

I reckon the stuff about have the optimism bombed out of you explains Douglas Adams too -so it must be right!

TCS: Tech Central Station - Where Free Markets Meet Technology

The tenor of this website is climate-change denial and business-as-usual capitalism. Note who's advertising in the near-top left-hand corner ... could it be ... no surely not ... Exxon aka Esso?

TCS: Tech Central Station - The Day After "The Day After Tomorrow"

This is from a website which is , as one Guardian reader describes "one of the most virulent, but cleverly put together, anti-climate change propagandist websites". The referenced page is a good example of apparent reasonableness but is really an attempt to problematize the real issues. Note how a few issues about other factors are inserted without noting that they do not really make much difference to the actual data that has to be explained.

Archaology of global warming

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed...
Looks pretty important to help us understand the consequences of what we're doing. Where will we put 400m people from Europe? The Sahara savannah? How can we reconstruct European civilisation in North Africa? Australia? Wherever?

The Long Summer by Brian Fagan

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed...

This is the archaeology of global warming and the historical lessons bear some contemplation in our current situation.

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Anger at 'gag' on pollution report

Despite recent announcements about taking climate issues seriously, it appears that the current government's actual record is not good and what's more thay have been trying to cover it up. That said I can't see the Tories doing any better since they seem to be in denial about much of what's going on ...

Awareness of Global Warming 'Is Low'

It's certainly my expereince as a visiting preacher in our area that people don't know much about climate change but that a number are willing to start to do something in their own lifestyles once the do know and can see how it relates to Christian ethical concerns. Challenge to Christian communicators: how much do you talk about climate change and the Christian response?

Fuel Cell Today - Conference opens in Beijing to explore hydrogen energy alternatives

If hydrogen is to emerge as a viable future for energy this needs to happen; and it's encouraging that it's in China too.

Blair commits us to green future

Though apparently a bit short on details, it was good to have this public reaffirmation of the need to do it. Now all he needs to do is bend Bush's ear about it.

PJ Polyp Cartoon

P J Polyp usually does stuff for PJ Polyp CartoonThe New Internationalist: This picture is why, I think, that image from Abu Ghraib has been pulling at me: the lines of it are somehow remniscent of this picture -which has to be one of my all-time favourites and I have used at our Chaplaincy centre to comment on the Iraq conflict simply subtitling it "Christ is our Peace". The image is pretty powerful and I think says more than words [and a few people have commented]. Originally I found it as the cover for a FoR publication. 

Meditation on this picture

Zak Benjamin's "Pentecost" 
In the ongoing reflections on pictures between AScension and Pentecost the latest posted Anamchairde. Enjoy and add your own insights.

Part-time Students: short end of the stick

Good points made in this article which is about how the UK governments funding proposals for HE are likely -unless altered- to discriminate rather badly against part-time students -who, let's face it, may be in some case no more or less part time than some registered as full-time ... The issue is -do we want to lose the Open University [and as someone hoping/thinking to enroll, my answer is 'no'].

Interesting points to ponder; in p/t HE there is already a free market in fees. Part time students are ineligible for lstudent loans but may actually be working similar hours both employed and at academic work as "full-time" students. hmmm.

How Do You Pronounce "Abu Ghraib"? - Hint: It doesn't rhyme with "babe." By Sam Schechner

The linguist in me comes out to play and recommends you delight yourself in discovering how properly to pronounce "Abu Ghraib" -come on! you can do better than George Bush. Amaze your friends and be the life and soul of the party [okay, so I've gone overboard now ...]

first green shoots

First scheme to allow people to sell surplus electrcity back to the grid -eg they're on holiday and their phot-electrics are still working ...

AM - Environmentalist says nuclear energy the answer to global warming

The Shock is that James Lovelock is advocating a switch to Nuke energy. You can understand his reasons but has he really thought about the long term effects of all that spent fuel waiting for reprocessing; just waiting for terrorists to steal and hold us all to ransom? Not to mention that nuclear is not all its cracked up [!] to be. The solution is to decentralise energy production pronto using renewables, make it economic to produce more energy efficient homes and workplaces and to retro-fit others. None of this is beyond the wit of people who could plan to build a huge amount of nuclear power stations- so as to produce a safer, more sustainable world without storing up a 'nuclear warming' problem for later generations.

G-8 Summit highlights fate of excess nukes

Embedded this well-written story about nucelar fule after the cold war is this quote: "The cost issue rankles Jay, who sees the MOX program as corporate welfare for the nuclear power industry." Quite so.

The full Ice Age article from "The Independent" : IMC Maritimes

Notwithstanding what I just blogged, this article deals with the issue of global warming versus areas of cooler climate, in principle; or does it?

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Britain Could Be Plunged into Ice Age in Single Lifetime

Check out my comments at TheGreening

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Britain Could Be Plunged into Ice Age in Single Lifetime

It looks like this is the topic for debate du jour. After all the assurances that maybe it wouldn't be like that, we have a dissenting voice saying that ice-age Britain could be within a generation.



I suspect that "ice -age" may be over the top; but we are the same latitude as Newfoundland -so snow/ice on the ground for several months could be a possibility, and yet since we would lose 5deg.C fromthe gulf stream and global warming could amount to 5-7degC ...

Meditations on Ascension - Pentecost ikons and pictures

Ascension reflections 
Over on Anamchairde begins a short series of reflections on pictures and icons of either the ascension or of Pentecost. First off, an Antiochene Orthodox ikon.

Fuel cells -How they work

Does what the title says: a brif intro to how fuel cells work. Ready guide to bookmark.

Pentecost Hands image

Pentecost image 

African Pentecost

African Pentecost 

Icon of Pentecost

Icon of Pentecost 

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Brown wins US backing for debt relief boost

This is a nice little piece of good news. I've been admiring, on the quiet, how Gordon Brown is evidently really committed to making things better for the tw-thirds world and it's starting to pay off. In the 80's I used to write to [Tory] MP's about such things and of course the answer was that we have to live in the real world and if no-one else would hel then there was little point in us doing it and ws it beingspent well anyway .... How refreshing to see that a bit of commitment and, no doubt, appeals to enlightened self-interest can make things better.

Now all we need is a chancellor committed to doing something about global warming and things could be really sunny [! ;-) ]

'Stranger danger' drive harms kids

What kind of society will such people make whose childhoods have been shaped by these conditions? Ripe for commercial exploitation of their leisure because they have a mild agoraphobia and so the free possibility of the parks or the great outdoors is suspect to them, in any case not brought up in such a way as to appreciate such things and addicted to the adrenaline highs of the video game. A society fragmented by the inability to relate to the unknown other -or at least a higher threshold of acceptance.

How does the gospel run in such a society?

Cannes honour for Bush movie

I can't help feeling that this is going to make it very lucrative for someone in theUSA to distribute this film over there ... and what will it do to the elections?

Teens forced to face drink facts

Well it needs to happen: I'm pretty concerned that the kinds of 'Macho-drinking' attitudes that were around when I was in my teens are still there, in spades, and with alcopops and relatively low prices for alcohol we are facing a huge alcohol problem in our society most of it to do with binge-drinking and most of it cultural [compare southern Europe]. I never thought I'd get to this point but I'm seriously considering some kind of temperance drive. Well, this article tells me I'm not alone.

It's so different in, say, Spain, where drinking to get ratted is not the aim; drinking is to be social and to relax together -often with food in the middle of the evening, and where going and ordering a soft drink or a coffee is just as okay as ordering an alcoholic drink. -I know I've done it on many an occasion when I lived there.

It's a culture change we're after not abstinence. I fear for our national health bills when these people reach middle age and liver problems start kicking in, not to mention the alcoholisms .... Or am I getting too old?

Strip, Pix, Burn: iRaq

Just look again at that advert; bottomleft image ... and bottomright ... and bottom middle ... the caption with the poster goes: "10,000 Volts in your pocket, guilty or innocent.".

There's an interesting comment at Eyeteeth "The logo-ization of Abu Ghraib..." [21May] .

I'm still thinking about this. Initial thoughts take off from noting that the figure has a somehow christlike aspect, or a plaster saint look. The sihouetting iconizes the image and relies on the original having a good deal of popular currency. What I'm trying to get straight in my head is the interplay of connotative meanings: conotations of ... well what? ... And in context; the fact that the image doesn't jump out at you [all on the bottom line -significant phrase?], in company with images of the young and trendy.

But then there's this from a wall in the subway in NYC
It's an interesting bit of subtervising.

The Dying Church

It's on my blogroll but I wonder whether the Dying Church has died ... nearly a week now and there's been no real movement ... perhaps the current article has just been shuffled to long-term memory and there's nothing in the short-term.

The shape of things to come: Sydney water shortages

These kind of articles scare me because it could be -for varying different reasons- anywhere in the west over the next 30 years ...

Da Vinci code reprise

Why the 'Lost Gospels' Lost Out - Christianity Today Magazine>
I've blogged stuff on the Da Vinci Code before. Here's an article by Ben Witherington III putting cogently the kinds of concerns I have about the book.

In fact it's the kind of article worth bookmarking -I'll be adding it to my 'apologetics' folder. Pithy and getting quickly to the main and telling facts.

Detoxing From Church

This really articulated how I sometimes feel especially when I look back on the last five years. Being a HE chaplain effectively took me out of church culture on a day-to-day basis [which was my context as a church leader -a vicar]. And I really got to the point of finding a lot of church life, when I went back into it for forays to help out, really painful. Painful because I couldn't imagine why I would want to be part of it both as myself and as a potential coming-in-from -the-outside type bod. It's been really positive to do that.

One of the interesting effects for me has been to notice that it isn't about the style of worship; Some 'cahtedral' style worship is okay while some isn't; some 'contemporary' is some isn't. I think it's about the sense of intregrity vs. 'fleshliness'.

I've come out thinking that I'd rather be in choral evensong than some 'contemporary' worship meetings OR I'd rather be in a coffe-house and multi-media /arty kind of event. ...

Anyway the fasting from church kind of idea really can help to find your bearings. I think the metsphor of addiction to churchiness is very very helpful.

Iraqi Christians On the receiving end of Brutality

worth looking at, this article: reminds us that some Iraqis are Christians, that the Christian disctinctive is to learn to look at life from the pov of the kicked rather than the kicker and comment too on the deleterious effects good guys/bad guys oversimplified so-called Christian thinking. 'Nuff said; read it for yourself.

Alternative Spiritualities And New Age Studies

Yesterday I was in Wolverhampton [the well known new age centre, ahem!] at the ASANAS conference. Very interesting nice to meet Neil Elliot again [researching the spirituality of skateboarding] -he's the Anglican Chaplain at UCE. The keynote talks were interesting though Marion Bowman couldn't be there in the end. Graham HArvey talked engagingly about how studying neoPaganism raised interesting methodological issues for the academy [actually the issues are the same for most religious groups but Paganism is his area] -mostly about the meanings of objectivity and the issues surrounding reflexivity [ie the observer's paradox and feedback from observer into the process and from the change process to the observer and so on]. Gordon Melton gave a very interesting overview of how New Age has developed and proposing that we actually need to see it more broadly as a revival of western esotericism which has a much bigger history and following in such a way as in terms of the West it needs to be considered a bigger deal than Islam or Buddhism. It was a kind of ASANAS needs to get out of the ghetto of a peculiar fringe interest of some academics and be taken seriously as a field of study.

So what's my interest? Well I'm an ex-newager, I lecture on postmodern spirituality with particular reference to NAMs. That said I'm pretty interested in ASANAS because of the missiological issues. Here are bunches of people who are trying to articulate and fashion their responses to a sense of the spiritual using the tools and raw materials that they find around them in globalized western culture and with a sense that the Christian faith has lost the plot. I think that we have a lot to learn from that as a church.

I think we should be looking to take on board the networked nature of affiliation, perhaps. And the sense that we don't have to emulate traditional church services to express what we're about [which is what Vitorian NAM equivalents tended to do]-meditation exercises and meals would be afine way to do church [I should say 'is]. What's with all this singing? It's become an undominical sacrament for many churches ... And I enjoy it but ...

We need to think hard about the how we engage with the views of God/Ultimate Reality. I think that personal dimension is important, NAM tend towards a 'Force' view -though many also seem parasitically to take Love as ultimate too [and I think we should press the point -how is love not personal? Part of what I think may commend Trinitarianism is that if God is Love then that implies a non-monistic God; threefoldness is implied by being inherantly love]. We also need to think through the challenge posed by the implicity technique-centredness of a 'Force' view of divinity -not least becasue it has taken root in some church cultures -just look at the way we do healing ministry.

We need to take seriously the experiential and even be confident enough to put it out there and tie up the doctrinal later. Personally I'm looking at setting up as a meditation teacher as a means of outreach. No programme, just see how it develops.

Oh this could get long so I'll leave it there and see if anyone wants to get back to me.

Fan Predicts Flood of New Followers of the Trendy Belief System Kabbalah

IT worth looking at this not least because there are some links from the page to inform yourself a bit more about it. Storm in a teaup or major player on the NRM stage? Hard to tell. It still looks like a form of commercialised gnosticism to me. So what are the Gospel ways in to it and out of it?

We need to hear the 'religion-free' stuff. We need to note the daily-life focus. There's clearly a commercial angle; a kind of sacramentalism in which you can buy shortcuts [or superstition, depending on your pov] and there is the sense of attunement with the universe lurking in the background...

Foes of 'globesity' run afoul of sugar's friends

Indication, if you needed it, that industry lobbies just go to protect their industry and hang the poor saps that are harmed ... this time the sugar refining industry lobby in the face of WHO findings on global obesity

Challenging Christian Zionism: Christians Committed to Biblical Truth & Justice

Again a sojourners link: a site that does what the title says. USeful resource.

Muslims against terrorism

Via Sojounrners came this link to a petition for US Muslims to dissociate themselves from terrosom, in the name of Islam. Encouraging.

Muslims against terrorism

Via Sojounrners came this link to a petition for US Muslims to dissociate themselves from terrosom, in the name of Islam. Encouraging.

Judge dismisses Ashcroft attempt to shut down Greenpeace

That was quick -so Greenpeace USA survive the government's legal challenge to them -on a technicality; which is a shame because it'd have been nice for them to get off because they were [a] peaceful and [b] whistleblowing a violation of US law as it says here:.
"Greenpeace USA Executive Director John Passacantando stated 'The conduct for which the Ashcroft Justice Department seeks to prosecute Greenpeace was, essentially, whistle-blowing -- publicly exposing and preventing violations of U.S. law prohibiting the importation of illegally harvested mahogany wood.'"

application interviews and jobseeking

Today [or yesterday] would have been an interview day for me had my application not received an unaccountable knock-back - which I still suspect of not being okay by equal opps. Basically: elimminating an applicant because they did not say things about their [relevant] experience that was not in any case asked for on the form, which in turn had no space for the kinds of comments that would have been required. ... Come on; if they'd said 'what are your views and analyses on current UK HE challenges and what strategies and responses have you adopted to meet them' I could have given them a fairly good essay. Instead I simply answered what I was asked "What is your current job and what does it involve?" and "Why have you applied for this post?". As it happens, in answering those questions, I showed quite a few strategies that had been adopted and gave indications that I understood the bigger issues; I assumed that the kind of questions that the feedback indicated I should have given in the application were for the interview. Perhaps I'm missing something here but it didn't seem right. Be interesting to see who is appointed; I'm almost willing to bet that it'll be an internal diocesan appointment of someone without appreciable experience of ministering in HE...

I blogged about this a few days back and said I'd share a few thoughts on good practice from the POV of a recent seeker/applicant.

First off; good application forms. They should reflect what the panel will need to know in order to shortlist [unlike above] without making arbitrary decisions or unevidenced assumptions [ditto] -so simply recycling the CofE's standard application form tout simple does not cut it if you aren't prepared to take the answers it produces.

and they should attend to how to give due weight both to experience and, if relevant, to inexperience: in what way can they be made commensurable? It may be that commensurability is something that the interviews would need to fine-tune.

On the other hand they should not be application forms that will take two weeks of careful research and writing to produce [you know what I mean] -unless they can gain you credit towards your current lifelong learning qualification!

The interview. Good marks for clear directions to the interview room, Full marks for indicating how much a taxi fare is likely to be from stations etc. Bonus points for meeting candidates with limo.

There is clearly a fashion for presentations. I've nothing against them; if I put my mind to it I can do a good presentation [so my feedback tells me]. But really is it always necessary. Last interview I had we were asked to do a five minute presentation to start with, and I really couldn't see the point; the job wasn't asking for presentation skills. MAybe I didn't get it because I didn't really try too hard -that and asking for an extra £3k! I wasn't sure I wanted that job anyway. So, what's the purpose of having a presentation? If none, don't do it. If so try to be clear in briefing the candidate and also in providing adequate equipment [and water]. It may be that some other 'exercise' would be better.

What are you hoping to do 'to' the candidates? Most panels seem set up to interrogate [and making silly jokes about the room layout isn't good enough -set it up differently; who says confronting the person from behind barriers and putting them in an interrogation chair is a good idea?] Best I've experienced was in a large drawing room with easy chairs and coffee tables and a good atmosphere to have a conversation.

QUESTION. Do you want a candidate who is nervous or who is relaxing? Why? Now look at your room set-up and your manner; are they serving your aims? Every panel should have one person who is good at putting people at their ease [fellow interviwers tell me that I do that]...

Another question; is the aim to catch people out and so eliminate them or to give them the opportunity to give you lots of information so you can make a good decision based on lots of info? It think it should be the latter for the most part and that means doing interviews in such a way as to achieve that. Do unto others ...

Also, lot's of people in interview conditions get 'brainlock' they may have several points they could make in response, but only the first one comes through. Get a panellist who's good at jogging people out of brainlock without prejudice.

Phew, a lot there. best leave it before I think of anything else.

More on the Da Vinci Code's Junk Scholarship

The Da Vinci Code
A little while ago I blogged on this novel -having read it- opining that it was a good fun adventure story but the so-called historical facts were based on the 'Sacred Blood' stuff and that the way the author presented this stuff was as if it was fact even if the story was fiction. Of course the history is bunk but a lot of people who have an anti-institutional church bias and a feeling for the perceived underdogs in the forming of the canon, take it as gospel. So we need to be ready with reasoned and pithy defenses -especially as apprently it's being made into a film. We need not to go protesting about it and giving free publicity to it as Tim Bednar cautions but we do need to take seriously the way that 'propaganda' that erodes Chritian credibility is being drip fed into our culture and because we aren't good at refuting it with timely well-chosen facts and good humour, we losing the battle for hearts and minds. Anyway Tim's article from the title link is a good place to start.

Investors Rate 500 Largest Companies on Climate

This is encouraging news from the Carbon Disclosure Project and Innovest Strategic VAlue Advisors. The article shows 12% more responses to the request to disclose info and so 59% consider that climate change offers both risks and opportunities for them. More: non-disclosers will be under greater scrutiny from investers ["what have they got to hide?"].



Pressure to take climate change seriously comes on corps from fear of litigation, recognition of the emerging carbon-trading realities, weather-related risks and rising leccy prices.

Bush vs. Greenpeace

The trial began today; I can't find any news yet of how it went today. It does seem odd that they're going after Greenpeace who were actually drawing attention to an illegal act in progress. Do the contrabandists not get prosecuted?

Metanexus Institute

I've not yet seen a study of it but it seems to me that scientific discovery often has an effect on art: chaos theory seemed to be tracked by art that used more random elements and complexity seemed to be mirrrored by art in which recursion and order from chaos seemed to be the theme. So to have here a site looking at [visual] art in relation to science explicitly seems a really helpful thing.

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11

After seeing a piece on this at breakfast on BBC News 24 and now reading this article; this is obviously for me a must see film. In fact knowing my kids, I suspect they're going to want to make a family occasion of it. The director is the guy who did "Bowling for Columbine" ... so that should give some ideas of the style.

The really interesting thing is the politics. Disney [who own Miramax, who paid for the making] have vetoed it being shown in the USA. Michael Moore made it in order to attempt to prevent the election of George W ... more details from this Guardian article.

BioDiesel

A semi tropical tree that grow fast is being investigated as a possible source of biodiesel. One of its advantages is that is is pretty hardy and can grow in relatively margnal conditions... still thinking about the wider issues of land use and fair trade.

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Islanders are Wind Power Guinea Pigs

Interesting experiment to see whether they can make the storage of hydrogen a way to store surplus electricity from wind power agaisnt the times when the wind drops. Watch that space.

Westernere who became Muslim. Preaching from the converted

Interesting insights into what lies behind some British conversions to Islam. Note that at least one is to a fairly extreme version. Of course it would be possible to find Christian conversion stories with the same sort of elements in them too. It requires us to be relatively sophisticated about our theology of the Holy Spirit and our anthropology to make sense of the congruencies. Though the Church Growth Movement has long recognized the human factors in what brings people into the church. How do we understand the role of the Spirit?

Seen Van Helsing

It's worth a viewing in my opinion. It portrays the church in a positive light -though there is a little ambiguity about it; it is the church that orders the destruction of Frankenstein's 'monster'; though that order is not carried out by friar Carl who acts in mercy towards him. There is an accidently ecumenical moment when VanH uses holy water to vanquish one of the brides of Dracula -it is Orthodox holy water rather than RC ...

I liked too the way that the vanquishing of bad guys is not seen a a simply morally right thing to do: VanH won't kill Frankenstein's monster because he/it is not given over to evil, and there is some regret at the work of dispatching monsters ["You don't have to see them when they return to human." -or suchlike words]. Of course the major criticism is that it is still a replication of the 'myth of redemptive violence' [Walter Wink's phrase fromNaming the Powers... or one of the following books]. Ie that good wins over evil by means of cathartic violence which restores or creates order and peace out of 'chaos'.

I liked too the tongue in cheek nature of it all. See how many film and TV references you can spot: here's my initial list to get you started: Star Wars [Dracula's servants], LOTR [lots], Gremlins, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Buffy, Angel, Indiana Jones, James Bond [see Friar Carl's workplace and role], I half expected Van H to say "I'll be back" ...

Interesting thing is how 'spiritual' dimensions of good and evil are 'in' and that there is a valuing of the notion of dedicating onself to fight against evil [echoes of baptismal texts]. The idea too that even something of the werewolf could be pressed into service for good is quite interesting too. And the ending isn't entirely or simply happy; so that's a bit grown up for American popular film ... [sorry; no offence intended -you know what I mean].

Boatrockers

I've just been recommedned this group and I must admit I can see why my colleague was doing so; they seem to be keen on re-imagining church life for England, not just those bits that could support an alternative style of congregation .... I'll have to find out more. Let you know if/when anything significant transpires ....

A Time for Truth - by Pat Buchanan

Are we on the cusp of yet another defining moment of history? - The retreat from the idea of Pax Americana and from the whole neoCon New American Century stuff? If Pat Bucahanon can query it this heavily then perhaps we are ... Personally I will sleep more peacefully if so, though I wonder what would replace it. I would be uneasy too if the USA repeated its isolationism of the early 20th Century. I just want the USA to be a force for good rather than a global bully and general bad neighbour.

Scotland - Tariffs help turn school green

Nice little story this. Headline says it all but it could be an interesting possibility for community regeneration in more rural areas ...

Church Times - True love waits and wears a ring

Every five years or so we seem to see just such a story. Thing is I don';t think I've ever seen any effect of it. Maybe I'm in the wrong place or move in the wrong circles to do so but I don't. I'm actually quite favourable to the message. I do think that virginity is a wonderful wedding gift and I do think that scripture encourages us to look on the sexual bond as a deep one which should be cherished as unique to persons committed to one another for life. I have not always thought so; as a teeneager I had a very promiscuous attitude [practice was somewhat different!] which was quite derogatory towards women; it was socially formed and entirely normed within the male groups [and some female] that I hung around with. If you wnat an idea od the kind of attitude then perhaps I could point to the sitcom "Whatever happened to the likely lads?" as illustrative.

On the other hand I don't think that the censorious attitudes towartds people who made mistakes is something I would want to replicate either ... However, the incidence of STD's, the trivialisation of sex and the concommitant trivializing of relationships and tendency to see others as vehicles for satiation of our desires [however mutually those desires are] cannot be good for the health of our society. So two cheers, reserving the third for whether it really can make an impact.

ALT-WORSHIP: Christian Cool and the New Generation Gap

What I found interesting in this was what the label "Alternative" seemed to connote. There was a more welcoming attitude to social non-conformity [good], multi-media in worship [probably good], but sermons maybe 45mins long? [hang on -obviously a more cosmetic exercise in worship] see this quote from the article:
"Mr. Lucas, the pastor at Liquid, speculated that hip, high-tech churches like his own might soon generate their own backlash. Already, he said, college students who wander in find the 45-minute sermon insufficiently interactive. "The church my daughter grows up in will be a critique of what we do at Liquid," he said. "She'll say, 'Why all this multimedia? What happened to sanctuary? I come to church because I want to be still in the presence of God.' I can see that coming very quickly."

I can see it coming too: the services I've been nurturing as chaplain have involved a degree of high tech and musical styles that are post-Kendrick, but we've really been quite big on interactive learning and worship and quite meditative content. I do hope that Mr Lucas's daughter manages to encourage them down that road -in fact why not do it anyway now that you've identified it?

Greenpeace go on trial for "Sailor mongering" -attack on right to protest?

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage
Just a reminder that the trial starts tomorrow; Greenpeace are being taken to court because of their attempt to bring to the attention fo the US and the world, the actual act of illegal importation of banned mahogony wood from Brazillian rainforest. We should note that the UK government declined to prosecute a civil servant who informed on actions the the UK government took which might be deemed illegal under international law ...

Starbucks turning into good guys?

Read this article and see what you think.
This is alongside to their commitment to origins programme. However I'm still a little concerned; do you notice how in the coffee shops that they display the fair trade logo but when you examine the thing a bit more carefully you realise that it is only advertising the fact that you can get FT coffee if you ask for it [and it is usually only available in a cafetiere at £2.50 -which is quite good value as you can get 2-3 cups from it]. And I can't really get a straight answer on what commitment to origins means apart from that they put some ft and some organisc stuff on sale. In other words it looks to me like unless you specifically get ft it ain't ft or anything like ... but I'd be more than happy to hear I'm wrong or if someone knows more about what 'commitment to origins' means for Starbucks in words that I can understand...

Reflections on job hunting

I've been unsuccesful in applying for three jobs now. The first I was a bit surprised to end up being interviewed [it was a diocesan post but wasn't really something I had experience in, there were some congruencies but I thought there must be a lot of people more suited ...], the second I was glad they offered to someone else after the interview and in fact made it a bit harder for them to offer me the post [and the person appointed to me seemed a good choice], the third was -on paper- the one most likely: right sort of experience, right sort of interests and even the right sort of churchmanship. Or so I thought. The one least likely to result in not being invited to interview of all my applications. And in fact the one I was most interested in and keen on.

I was disappointed to be told I wasn't being asked to interview. I asked for feedback and was graciously given some feed back on my application. I thanked them for it. I went away and thought about it. And then I started to be concerned ....
You see I was told that my application had been found wanting: "given the experience you had, a lot of what you wrote was by way of aspiration rather than evidential."
Well, I looked through my application form; could I find any aspirational statements? No. In fact, I would have said it was all evidential [though sketchy 'cos there was a good bit to put in and little space] -mostly "I have done ...", "I set up ...", "I led ..." kind of stuff. So I kind of wondered -are they looking at the same application: have they mixed me up with someone else?

Also I was told; "The panel would have valued more in the way of analysis of the situations facing universities and students and examples of strategies you have employed in developing partnerships both within the university, ecumenically and in the community."
True: I didn't put much of that in. But hang on ... where was that asked for on the form? To eliminate a candidate on the basis that they didn't provide you with something that you didn't ask for is unfair, the more so if you end up appointing someone who couldn't have done so because they didn't have that experience [or am I missing something here?]. And in fact, I did evidence some of that stuff incidently as I answered the questions I was actually asked on the form. Feeling sore, as you can probably tell!

I've been involved a bit with selecting and interviewing under equal opp's conditions and we were not allowed to apply to one candidate a criterion that could not apply to another in this kind of way. I felt that the kind of thing that was mentioned here, given that is was not asked for in the application material, should have been asked at interview.

Perhaps I'm missing something; but it looks screwy to me. I wrote and told the chair so, who put it to the panel and they still nixed it but without giving any reason: so I'm left still wondering about that feed-back which was so badly fitting. Did they mix up my details with another candidate? Did they already have someone in mind and wanted to keep strong candidates from 'outside' out of the running? [!] Perhaps it was really random; they simply laid out the forms and chose every third form? Did someone who knows of me and didn't like what they thought they knew 'spike' the mix?

Anyway it's made me even more aware of the need for good process when setting up interviews; the more so as today I was actually involved in interviewing people for positions at the Fair Trade Cafe in Bradford ... which went well and I think we dealt with things justly ... perhaps I will blog again in a little about the lessons I think I've been learning about how to do this recruiting stuff well-ish.

How does Geothermal energy work?

This is a good site to get an idea -great little graphic presentation of the process if you follow the links. Also it is a commercial site; these are Ozzies planning to use geothermal energy to produce electricity. I couldn't find cost comparisons with other forms of generation -if anyone has any I'd love to see them ...

Ecological Footprint -loads of resources

. I've used pop eco-footprint quizzes in alternative worship before as an intro to issues of ecological justice. It's a good discussion starter and I usually have gone on to encouraging people to identify one or more practical steps they could take to reduce theirs. Apparently cutting fossil carbon use and eating less or no meat makes quite a big difference ... so ...

There's also a good page to get you started on thinking about how to put this into public policy at a local level. Once we start to take it seriously individually we start to come up against the ways that our local modi vivendi conspire against what we are trying to achieve, and so we need to do something about that .... and so on ...

Redefining Progress

Looks like a useful website for dealing with issues of shifting "the economy and public policy towards ustainability". What got me to it was an article on ecological footprints in "Green Futures". It does seem to me that the conept behind ecological footprints is probably a very powerful one in promoting the idea of 'enough' and sustainability. IT certainly helps us to focus attention on the relative wealth of the west. The new thing in some of this over previous web sites giving an eco footprint is a bit more info as to what would be the most effective ways to reduce it. Apparnetly using sustainable energy is quite a big factor and eating less or no meat is a big deal too.

Just read "1421: The Year China Discovered the World"

1421: The Year China Discovered the World

Haing read this, I'm pretty convinced that there is a strong possibility that the Chinese did indeed discover much of the world in and just after 1421 [our calendar]. I'm not a historian but the evidence looked solid; most impressive is the issue of accurate maps predating the European [mainly Portuguese] forays into the wider world. In fact the maps that may well go back to these Chinese expeditions seem to have been a reason for the Europeans to go a wandering themselves. More convincing than that the maps were copies of maps made by visitors from out of space, certainly.

Whay did the Chinese not capitalize on this to become a colonial power before the Europeans got the idea and got there? -Domestic politics and a lightining strike led to the thought that Heaven did not approve of all this gallivanting and the domestic hardships it caused; so began a period of isolationism.

There's a 'what if...? novel awaiting this; what if that lightning had never struck and the Chinese had consolidated colonies in Australia, South America, North America and even Africa? -I could go for that if I knew more about Chinese history and culture....

Ps. If you want to check out some of the evidence without yet buying the book try the website: 1421 - Gavin Menzies .

Passion of the Christ -Buddhist audience reactions

The other day I blogged about Buddhism, today again but this time with a twist: how Thai audiences reacted to The Passion. I'd have liked more than this article gives but it's intriguing.

We need to hear this too

Regular readers will know that I'm quite prepared to criticise Islam if I think that there is a fair point in doing so. This also means, I think, that I should give credit where it is due and this article is a balance: many of us were shocked by the beheading od that man in Iraq on camera. I certainly couldn't understand how it could be justified morally in Islamic terms -well it can't and here's Hezbollah saying so.

And Iraqis doing so, and also Al Azhar scholars [that's like the Islamic Vatican].

Oh take some time to read the sidebar articles on the right of those pages; it's important to Muslims to know how Muhammed did things -that guides their atttitude and practice [it's 'sunna' -tradition based on the Prophet of Islam's actions and sayings -related to the word sunni, as it happens].

Pbuh stands for "Peace be upon Him" and is the practice not so much of honouring a prophet but of seeking blessing by praying for that prophet's blessing -so don't feel you are offending if you don't do it -only do it if you think that God is going to bless you for blessing a prophet ....

I think I'm a liberal

... at least by the definition that Dave Batstone's correspondant in this article goes by. It appears that one of Britain's exports to the USA has come back to bite us. Dispensationalism was invented by the founders of the Plymouth Bretheren back in Victorian times [or was it a bit before?]. Never really made it big here but in the USA it's huge. It would appear that I must be a liberal Christian by this definition -although I take my usually fairly progressive social views from a fairly 'straight' reading of the Bible. You see, my mistake -apparently- is not using the OT more to inform my politics and social views. Thing is that this dispenstionalism is a heaviweight factor in the USA in some political motivations ...

Greenpeace on trial -branded a 'criminal organisation' by USA?

Watch the animation linked here -it's a witty introduction to the fact that the US government is prosecuting Greenpeace. Now why would they do that?

Well, the history of the issue is in this article and this one makes it clear that the outcome could be that Greenpeace is branded a criminal organisation.
There's a petition about it ...

History that never was

What Might Have Been: Imaginary History...
Interesting book this. Just finished -so quickly I didn't get to put it up on my 'now reading' list alongside. I'm a great fan of alternative histories based on the #what if ...' question; what if ROme didn't fall, the reformation never succeeded, Hitler won, etc etc. In fact I'd love to have a go at writing a 'what if...?' book one day.

This one has twelve leading historians come up with essays or stories of what may have been if ... Napoleon had succeeded, the Japanese had not gone for Pearl Harbour, Lenin was assasinated at Finland Station, the Spanish Armada landed, the Brighton bomb had killed Margaret Thatcher .... and so on. It's patchy in that some are easier to read than others but most scenarios are intriguing and the value of them being written by historians is that there is a good feel for the real probablities that do justice by how things really were and are rather than a desperate seeking for an interesting hook to swing a story from, however improbable. It's interesting too to guess whether the historians individually are more or less determinist. I'm not a historian but I felt, for me, this kind of approach helps me to appreciate the craft of history writing and research.

The opening essay by the editor [Andrew Roberts]is a good airing of the issues of writing good "what if ...?" stories; feel for the period and actual dynamics of the episode, coming up with credible alternatives and realistic plots on the basis of those alternative timelines. Worth getting if you're into history or alternative timeline fiction [and if you enjoyed the His dark Materials stuff ...]

Forget cultural relevance

after all the Mormons are about as culturally dissonant as you can get. What's more they propose a belief system and an authority structure that is pretty hard to live with too. Yet they grow even in the West [read the article]. How is this possible? I don't know but I was wondering yesterday beofre I saw this article ... maybe it has something to do with persistence in doing the hard footslogging. Maybe it's to do with a standard technique of provoking a sense of inner confirmation of their message [which I suspect has a lot to do with suggestion, little sister of hypnosis, but that's another matter]. ...

Heresy? or something to learn from?

Buddhism in the west

I can't rmember whether I've mentioned before about the OMF figures pointing to a tenfold growth in Buddhist adherance during the 90's in the UK. The article here is a reflection of that in the US. For those of us interested in emerging church issues there's a lot that we need to reflect upon, andsome that we already know.

This caught my eye:
"As our country becomes more secular, more people are attracted to other religions like Buddhism because they haven’t been indoctrinated as a child," said Glenn Lewis, a founder of the Middletown-based Buddhist Faith Fellowship, said. "They are actively looking for something that resonates with them."
Some people first become attracted to Buddhism, because the traditional monotheistic religions and modern-view of life aren’t working for them anymore. Meditation, an integral practice of Buddhism, also can initially attract them to the religion."

I think we should note the importance of spiritual practice[s] and resonance. There is also the mantra beloved of the NewAge networkers "aren't working for them anymore". Iow the dissonance is too great and the traditional framing of belief and practice doen't make sense experientially. That's our challenge.

I'll leave this with one more quote:
"...there are many more people from the university who come to the house to meditate, but don’t consider themselves Buddhist. People, he and the other students said, can practice parts of Buddhism without being labeled a Buddhist." Which seems to me to be all about the "taste and see" mentality and een the privatization of belief.

Torture and human rights etc

I came across a few articles on this, and for anyone following this up there are useful further links too. The title-cited one is about the necessity or otherwise of torture as a tool of intelligence [it's not very good in truth, apparently -leaving aside issues of right and wrong only momentarily]. So you might also look at this site which seems to indicate that the treatment at AbuGhraib was more systematic than previously thought. Then there's this one, which encourages us to learn a few lessons from history.

Before I leave off forgiveness pro tem ....

A story here of forgivness; okay a bit schmaltzy. What interests me is the dynamics of why it is called a story of forgivness. No apology is offered and no explicit forgiveness extended. It is all done by implication. The offended party seems to assume that either the new circumstances reframe the offence as insignificant [in other words the hurt is not great and can be easily 'swallowed'] and/or the apology is held to be implicit because [?] the relationship is such or the way that body-language communicated is such that the desire for apology was known. The act of forgiving is clearly in the offer to do something that presumes that the relationship is restored, to accept the offer is to accept both the offer of forgivness and the need for it ...

Robot Sex

A title that probably needed a second look, eh? But seriously folks ...

This article raises all sorts of issues about human interface GUI's etc. HAve you ever wondered what makes people choose their lifts' voices genders? OR other kinds of automated public announcement systems. Well I have but it's not explicitly dealt with in this artilce but the kinds of things it involves are in there. What perception is there of which kinds of voice. Since interactive devices [robots if you will] are likely to be a bigger part of our lives publically or privately perhaps we should think a bit more about apparent/presenting gender in relation to such devices. What difference does it make both in terms of 'ergonomics' and in terms of the wider social implications of gender stereotypes or otherwise?

The other implication it seems to me is about the anthropology of it: we relate to the other communicationally as personal -we can't avoid it, it seems; we personalise our computer, our cars, fridges etc etc etc and gender assignment is inevitably a part of that. Can we relate to the other without it? And then what might any answer you or I give to that set of questions/issues say about relating to God?

New Blogger settings

I thought I'd have a go at one or two things now that Blogger have updated
their stuff. They now have commenting built in and so I've gone on to that.
This doea mean that I've lost the previous comments from HaloScan but it
should make things easier over time not to have to worry about replanting
the code if I change the template. The problem was though, when I changed to
blogger's comments and removed the haloscan ones, I must have accidently
removed a crucial bit of formatting [as as my HTML is very basic and doesn't
run to CSS]; meaning that I've had to rebuild the site from pieces of old
pages .... but it seems successful.

The new templates are nice too -I might just go for one... a bit later
maybe.

Anyway the other thing to try is this one. I'm writing this blog entry by
email and seeing whether I can get it up on the site simply by emailing:
could make things simpler in one or two instances, you never know.

Where is Britain boadband capital?

Alston Morr in the Penines. Did you guess right? Me neither. Interesting article and some intriguing thoughts suggested about pastoral care and doing church since the church is a big part of this community.

The rains came up and the house went .... up

Yes, this seems intersting. If you are affected by flooding then make your house float. They're doing it in Holland. Read all about it.

Policy back in the USA

Good article. Not a lot new in it but it is well written and there is a nice historical note in it about the development of US policy -and it is not all bad! I liked this quote "Three cheers for 80s era thinking! The authors, who run the market-oriented Rocky Mountain Institute, conclude that if the costs of the war had been invested in efficiency technology, we wouldn't have had to fight it in the first place. It's enough to make you slam your head against a flagpole over and over again."



Interstingly the article also reports: "Even though a recent Time/CNN poll shows finds that 75% of the American people think global warming is a "very serious" problem, only 48% said they would support paying 25 cents more per gallon to fix it."

And clearly this is viewed as negative [well, it isn't a majority] but in fact it is a much higher figure than I expected and it wouldn't take much for it to become a majority. As you can tell I'm normally a 'glass is half full' sort of person.

More on wind

This follows on from the blog on May 7th. Basicaaly pointing out that there a few pretty important reasons for changing to renewables that the article doesn't really mention [and which I keep banging on about in this blog] - such as the urgency of the climate threat, the way that current power generation is more vulnerable to terrorism...

I must admit that I warmed to this letter on the matter:

"What would the Nimbys prefer in their backyards - a wind farm or a nuclear power station? If we are not to have windfarms in the countryside, could we please do away with all tall, metallic objects that already "blight" it? Then the Nimbys will have no electricity and their mobile phones will have no reception"

Just the way I felt when I was in Calderdale listening to Hebden Bridgers objecting to a windfarm.

Suspicious dealing on nuclear waste

At least supicious to me: when I first read about this I was wondering whetehr it was a way for the nuclear power industry to wriggle out of the cost implications of disposal, and I'm not convinced yet that this isn't partly what it's about. Given the way that policy is increasingly cost-sensitive, anything that messes with the cost of ... oh let's say, nuclear generation of electricity by not including in it the decommissioning and waste disposal costs, makes it more likely that it will be seen as a viable option ... paranoid? who me?

Humidity rising

I hate it when it's humid but it looks like I'm going to have to get used to it if this article about the apparent effects of GW are correct: the wold is getting wetter as it warms up.

Global warming skeptic on the Day after Tomorrow

The author of this article is an arch skeptic whose take on global warming has earned him the dismissal of many of his peers in science; basically they think that his research and reasoning is bad -and they're probably right. Normalyl I would have put this in TheGreening but I felt that this one needed to go on a blog that more people read. Bjorn Lomborg may be trying to salvage his reputation by hitchin his name and ideas to trashing this film. As one of my posts a few days back indicates, those of us who are not skeptical about global warming are also concerned about this film. Lomborg may gainmore of a hearing than he deserves for his other ideas on the basis of this piece. Though I do note that although he prioritises getting clean water to millions, he does seem to include the possibility that it would be good to do somehting about global warming, so maybe he's modified his views?

church leaders dying on their feet

Maybe over dramatic but ... this article articulated a lot about the way I felt at the end of my parish ministry before I went into chaplaincy. The whole way that church life has gone means that you have a whole load of people who have ceratin sense of calling and they are acepted for training and ordination on the basis of that calling. Then they find that the things they felt called to may only be a small part of the package of what they actually do and in this country you add to that the stress of having to manage decline, because for many the situation and their gifts are not conducive to growth no matter how hard they try and how 'church-growth correct' their strategies.

As for me the way I feel at the moment I would rather be self-suporting that prop up some of the system as I have been experiencing. The thing is, I may have to follow through on that; and that's scary.

Why did it go wrong in Abu Ghraib?

I'd forgotten this but it seems pertinent; the Stamford Prison experiment; read it and weep. See also this article with a few more details of the experiment.

Torture as pornography

Not a lot to say more than this article says. It's a good, thought-provoking cultural analysis of what we've been seeing with regard to the abuse pictures from Iraq. It is written by a woman; Joanna Bourke and she says:
"What is particularly interesting in these photographs of abuse coming out of Iraq is the prominent role played by Lynndie England. A particular strand of feminist theory - popularised by Sheila Brownmiller and Andrea Dworkin - attempts to argue that the male body is inherently primed to rape. Their claim that only men are rapists, rape fantasists or beneficiaries of the rape culture cannot be sustained in the face of blatant examples of female perpetrators of sexual violence. In these photographs the penis itself becomes a trophy. Women can also use sex as power, to humiliate and torture"

Perhaps this is of a piece with things like the way increasingly women smoke and binge drink and engage in what would otherwise be called 'laddish' behaviour ... ? The problem with the way that the gender equality thing has gone is that the traffic of values has largely been one way in popular culture; women have been liberated to act like men -including being boorish, abusive and loud. I'd have loved it if some of the traffic of values could have gone the other way ... but it didn't happen. Unless I'm missing something.

Joanne touches on this in a way saying: "the display of cruel pleasure taken in punishing Iraqi prisoners has reverberated throughout the world, confirming in many countries the negative stereotype of westerners as decadent and sexually obsessed."

ALso I commend the article for reminding us of the important lost dimension in most of the heat generated by the photos the victims themselves. We are reminded: "As in Jean Améry's description of being tortured by the Nazis, sexual violation is so devastating not because of the physical agony suffered so much as by the realisation that the other people present are impervious to the victim. Torture destroys "trust in the world . . . Whoever has succumbed to torture can no longer feel at home in the world." "
And that's the biggest grief of all.

God is not partisan

At the bottom of this article is this:
<<
The comments offended many Muslims, including Helal Omeira, the Northern California director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Omeira also has been shocked by the abusive photos coming out of Iraq in the past week, but has urged his fellow Muslims not to overreact.
"Blaming Americans for the actions of a few soldiers,'' he said, "is the same as blaming all Muslims for 9/11.''>>

Quite so; I heard a middle eastern human rights activist this morning on breakfast news saying that the kinds of things that are provoking understandable and justifiable outrage in the Mulsim world about the US/UK occupation of Iraq have been and continue to happen daily in middle eastern countries inflicted by security forces on their own people ... a good balancing point. One that won't really be heard for a good while I fear.

He Qi's art is wonderful -I love it

There's more like this. I had come across some of Qi's stuff before [remember Chinese family names are the first name] without knowing the artist, Jonny Baker blogged his discovery of Qi's site and I must say I think it is worth a look.

He Qi paints in a style I would love to have a go at learning from when I get more time for my own art work.

Blair retreat on CO2

The title says it all; the article gives a bit more detail. A case of watch this space, I think. Has the government been nobbled by certain bits of the business lobby?

Contraindicators on wind power

This article later on gets into the real meat of objections to wind power. The main ones apply to onshore wind not to offshore wind generation. Downsides are: blot on the landscape, down time [requiring back up means of generation for when the wind doesn't blow], the concrete and resources needed to build and maintain the generators, and it will never be able to be a significant contributor to electricity supply. There are actually good responses possible to most of those objections but they do need to be taken seriously as objections. You might like to check out this site to get a balance -though the article does a good job of providing balancing views. A very good guide to the debate in all, is this.



One of the least convincing objections is about the killing of birds, to which note this:

'The RSPB, which supports wind power, says it objects only when there is "insufficient information about the risks to birds and their habitats to conclude that there will not be a problem". The British Wind Energy association, the industry lobby group, is perplexed. "Even in Altamont Pass in America, where 7,000 turbines were erected on a migratory route, it was only 0.2 birds per turbine per year. Compare this with the number killed by cats, cars and by flying into windows, or even by global warming, and it is not significant at all," a spokesman says.'

Which puts it into perspective.



And another sense-of-proportion-encouraging quote:

' Allan Moore, chair of the British wind energy association and head of renewables at National Wind Power... [i]n the next 10 years ... expects to invest almost £1bn in wind. Moore spent 30 years building and installing nuclear, coal, gas and other power stations before moving to wind. "Proportion is needed. In the 17th century we had 90,000 windmills in Britain. They were a part of life. What we're looking to do is install perhaps 4,000, making 5,000 in total. Roughly half will be onshore and half offshore. If 4,000 turbines sounds a lot, compare Germany, where last year alone they installed more than 2,500mW of capacity and now have 7,000 turbines."

Oil prices rising

The main cause seems to be "Terrorism fears are causing a permanent risk premium to be built into the market," said independent energy consultant Geoff Pyne. In other words oil prices are going to be higher no matter what as long as there is a significant perceived threat of terrorism. This brings forward the economic push to develop alternatives to oil. So it's good news for the long-term health of the planet, it's bad news for those most affected and vulnerable in the meantime to changes in the world economy.

Now that's what I call alternative ...

A few years back we were asking whether USAmericans 'got' alternative church. When I was in Lake Junaluska in January 2001 along with Paul Roberts, Sue Wallace, the Bees ... we were sharing the presentation with USAmericans who were looking at 'alternative' worship and felt that most of it seemed to be mostly retreads of band-led, platform-focused worship. Well that seems to have definitively changed ...

One of the intersting things is the comments about size -small really does seem to be regarded as beautiful. Also the connections through -inter alia- blogging. NOw this is church I could get excited about -in fact this is church as I have sometimes fostered it. When we move I hope we came help foster/nurture something like this, I really do. I don't think Durham has the like ... yet!?

Fuel cells in California.

Sometimes market-led does head in the right direction -like in an area like California where electrical power has become an issue of when and if, at times, it makes sense to look at alternatives and fuel cell technology is a sensible way forward in at least some cases. Downside is that some of the hydrogen is being produced from mineral gas, the good news in this case is that a virtuous cycle is also being created using waste methane as the precurser.



And, well, it's not entirely the market since there is a state incentive at work too

"federal government needs to provide incentives to ramp up demand because fuel cells will remain more expensive than traditional energy sources for the immediate future. The adoption of fuel cells "has more to do with political will than with technological problems," "



Way to go, though.

If you were a theologian which would you be?

Actually the premise is wrong for many of you reading this: if you pray then you are already a theologian [I think it was St Simeon said that]. Nevertheless this is a bit of fun to brighten your day.

I came out as Karl Barth: "You are Karl Barth!
You like your freedom, and are pretty stubborn against authority! You don't care much for other people's opinions either. You can come up with your own fun, and often enough you have too much fun. You are pretty popular because you let people have their way, even when you have things figured out better than them." Mostly true except I think I'm more respectful of other people's opinions than this would imply [I hope!]. Also I'm only stubborn against authority when I am unconvinced and feel that other methods of persuasion have been ignored. May be I should do it again, there were a couple of questions I hesitated over quite a bit and I'm not sure that I chose rightly ...

Even with the changed answers it still comes up Karl Barth! -Anyone *not* come up KB?

truth and tradition and corporate entities

Thomas Hohstadt has published a further reflection on mission in a postmodern culture. An interesting article though not saying anything quite as groundbreaking as he is capable of.

One bit caught my attention though but: "God speaks to individuals, not institutions. He does not subject His Truth to the pecking orders of mediation and arbitration. He does not filter His Truth through worldly societies or cultures--even "religious" cultures. Instead, Truth enters the world pristine, unmediated. And, as the transforming power of faith is always an individual experience, so is the inspired witness of that experience."

I'm not sure I agree that God does not speak to institutions: "Write to the Angel of the Church in ... Smyrna ... Pergamum ... Laodicea"; it seems to me that the institution of the church in those places is being addressed at that point. If the Walter Wink thesis about the hermeneutics of 'Principalities and Powers' [in Naming the Powers...
] is basically right [and I think it is] then passages such as Eph.3.9-10 ["to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. " NRSV] seem to indicate God precisely addressing institutions -even if mediatedly through the church in this case -which would seem to contradict what I think Thom is saying here. The individualism of this take is understandable but seems, in the end, to come down to a reductio, a nothing-buttery. I think part of our task is to envisage how corporate humanity may be addressed and called. This is not to take responsibility away from individuals but it is to open up a whole dimension of human be-ing that enlightenment individualism has lost.

Admittedly post-modernity's relationship with individualism is contested [even the term post-modern in such cases may indicate an ideological stance in relation to individualism see Liquid Modernity]. However it does seem to me that feminist writings and other concerns are pointing us towards more communitarian ways of thinking -even if individualism is making it hard to see our way through.